NEWTON COUNTY – A Covington man faces a number of charges after he allegedly engaged in inappropriate conversations with his own niece.
Lenox Corlette, 61, was arrested on Nov. 27 following an investigation from the Newton County Sheriff’s Office (NCSO) regarding his text messages with his juvenile niece.
According to a narrative from the NCSO, the juvenile’s mother noticed in July that her daughter had been getting text messages from someone by the name of “Lenox.” When the mother asked who Lenox was, the daughter said it was “Uncle Olo,” a name that was used by Corlette. While the messages were listed as “not alarming and friendly,” the mother opted to block the number.
On Aug. 20, while at a family gathering including Corlette, the mother received a call from her husband, with the man claiming that Corlette was sending inappropriate messages stating, “I want to see you.”
Officers spoke to the husband, in which he said his daughter walked in the room and said that Corlette was “acting weird.” The husband and his brother-in-law continued to text Corlette from his daughter’s phone.
The husband and the brother-in-law then called the number on their personal phones, in which they believed it was Corlette on the other end. It is not clear what transpired in either phone call.
After the phone call, Corlette allegedly kept texting the juvenile’s phone, asking for pictures of “cat” and “fish,” according to the narrative. When the husband and brother-in-law responded with a picture of a fish tank, Corlette allegedly asked to see the daughter’s genital area.
When speaking to officers, the brother-in-law said that Corlette continued to ask for genital pictures, before allegedly sending a picture of his own genitals to the daughter’s phone.
The pictures were sent to investigators who then brought forth charges three months later.
Corlette is charged with one count of using a computer service to solicit, seduce, lure or entice a child to commit illegal activity, one count of distribution of material depicting nudity or sexual conduct and one count of child molestation. He has since bonded out.
